With the reunion classes of 1983, 1984, and 1985 among the many fans looking on, East Hampton High School's football team trounced Eastport-South Manor 42-7 in its regular-season finale Saturday, not to mention that four touchdowns were called back.
Thus the Bonackers finished the season at 5-3, the first East Hampton football team to do so well since 2009. The last time an East Hampton football team made the playoffs was in 2013. Joe McKee, who for the past decade has been working tirelessly to revive the program, was greeted with cheers afterward from his players, who had gathered together, when he said, shaking his head — and tongue firmly in cheek — "It wasn't good."
After which his older brother Kelly, one of his assistants, leaped into the raucous scrum and was showered with glitter.
East Hampton was ranked 11th of the 12 teams in Division III before the season began, and is entering the county's D-III tournament as the seventh seed. The Bonackers are to play at second-seeded Half Hollow Hills West on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Colts finished the regular season at 7-1, their sole loss coming at the hands of top-seeded Sayville, the undefeated division champion. Hills West defeated Eastport-South Manor 49-12 on Sept. 20.
Girls Swimming Takes Second
In other postseason competition of note here last week, East Hampton's girls swimming team placed second, behind Sayville-Bayport, the league champion, in the League III meet Friday at Sachem East High School. Craig Brierley's young crew was outscored 380 to 350, Say-Bay having garnered 37 points in diving. Had just the swimming events counted, East Hampton would have won by 7.
"Our girls were awesome competitors — they never gave up and gave 100 percent in all of their races, pushing themselves and their competitors to the limit," Brierley said in an emailed report. "For those competing, every race mattered, and those who weren't competing were cheering, showing the character and selflessness that are the signs of a successful team."
East Hampton's 200 freestyle relay team of Lily Griffin, Maya Dias, Cybelle Curry, and Lizzy Daniels won. The Bonackers placed second (Lily Griffin), third (Sydney Powers), and fourth (Dias) in the 50-yard freestyle; second (Vanessa Rizzo), third (Lily Griffin), and fourth (Curry) in the 100 free, and second (Daniels), third (Ava Castillo), and fifth (Ginger Griffin) in the 200-yard individual medley.
East Hampton placed second (Rizzo), fourth (Ashley Leon), and fifth (Lucy Knight) in the 100 backstroke; third (Lily Early), fourth (Lylah Metz), and fifth (Mia Milazzo) in the 500 free; third (Molly Grande), fourth (Leon), and fifth (Curry) in the 200 free; second (Castillo), fifth (Ginger Griffin), and seventh (Valeria Gutierrez) in the 100 butterfly, and second (Daniels), sixth (Lily Caplin), and seventh (Abby O'Sullivan) in the 100 breaststroke.
The 200 medley relay team of Rizzo, Daniels, Castillo, and Lily Griffin placed second, as did Leon, Metz, Castillo, and Rizzo in the 400 freestyle relay.
All three relay teams have qualified for the county meet that is to be contested Sunday at Stony Brook University, as well as the following: Lily Griffin in the 200 free, Castillo and Daniels in the 200 individual medley, Daniels, Lily Griffin, and Rizzo in the 50 free, Castillo and Ginger Griffin in the 100 butterfly, Castillo, Curry, Daniels, Lily Griffin, and Rizzo in the 100 free, Early and Metz in the 500, Rizzo in the 100 backstroke, and Castillo, Daniels, and Mia Luna in the 100 breaststroke.
21-7 at the Half
Back to football, the visitors didn't make a first down until the final second of the first quarter, by which time the Bonackers led 14-0, thanks to a 27-yard run by Alex Davis and to a 14-yard pass from Theo Ball (one of Newsday's "Gridiron Greats" this week) to Jackson Ronick.
A floating pass in the flat intended for Davis was intercepted and run back 16 yards for an Eastport touchdown with about eight minutes left to play in the second quarter. That was to be the Sharks' sole highlight for the day. Just before halftime, Ball and Livs Kuplins teamed up on a 75-yard catch-and-run that, along with Manny Morales's extra-point kick — his third of the afternoon — increased Bonac's lead to 21-7.
An 8-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Stern, to which Morales added the extra point, made it 28-7 East Hampton going into the fourth quarter. A 9-yard touchdown pass to Kuplins and a 75-yard touchdown run by Ronick, along with two more subsequent Morales kicks through the uprights, were to come.
Following the pleasing rout, McKee said the credit for bringing the program back wasn't his alone — he'd had a lot of help and it had been a long process. Homecoming (whose game was played at Herrick for the first time since 1977) had been, he said, everything he'd hoped for. It had, indeed, been a special season, made all the more so by the fact that Saturday's crowd included his former football coaches, Dick Cooney and Mike Burns — who were also the district's athletic directors in their time — and Chris Sarlo, the district's former principal and superintendent.
As for this year's team, he said, "This is a great group of kids, they've been great. They've bought in since day one. It's a young team, mostly juniors and sophomores, just a couple of seniors. . . ." Thus, as far as the playoffs were concerned, he added, "we're playing with house money."
